How Spider-Man Compares to Real Spiders

In a culture that finds it hard to love most bugs, spiders are nonetheless the ones we tend to accept, or at least admire at a distance, for their ingenuity with locomotion, insect-hunting and home-building.

In each of those areas, the web's the thing, as any Spider-Man fan can see starting Friday when "Spider-Man 3" opens.

Spider silk could stop a Boeing 747 in flight, is stronger than bullet-proof Kevlar and more elastic than nylon, biologists say.